


Ways to Pass the Time

by nunona



Category: Eddsworld - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Eddsworld AU, Fair mix of ways to love, Future AU, M/M, NSFW, Sex could happen, Ship Fanfic, Smutt may be included possibly, Tom/Tord - Freeform, Unhealthy love later turned to healthy love, Unrequited love shown, WTFuture inspiration, cough cough, gay pairings, sexuality questioning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-02
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-07-19 13:48:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7363813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nunona/pseuds/nunona
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Tord disappeared, our home burnt to a crisp as a departure gift from the old friend himself, all our group could do was find a new place, something I’d already had a way to handle after previously leaving the household myself. Tord was gone. Matt’s and My injuries soon healed up. With time, everyone let go of the event and went on to live the way they had before.And just like all happy endings, this one was short.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Changes Good and Bad

As much as people hype about it, I don’t really see what’s so great about this ‘Golden Age’ future we have now. People act like the countries have changed. As if all fights for power reached their compromises, as if all war is over, and equality has its final stand. Too much has changed in my book to enjoy it, personally. Though I guess it can’t be helped for others. Some people still need a sense of hope in their life. 

I guess there’s an exception with me and any other logical bloke out here now with hope being too far off to find. The air is thicker, laced with pollution and carbon dioxide and newer, ‘efficient’ chemicals. The country’s still got its persuasive leaders, sure, those who speak of peace, happiness, and liberation. But it’s not like a new age can come of it. Different leaders don’t bring different fates. The past has shown that much. And though I’d love to pay attention to it, I don’t have the time. Politics never really was my cup of tea anyways. And this whole freedom spiel is honestly getting old. It’s easier to just spend thoughts on my friends and work online over anything else. However, as much as I talked of the world not changing, there were some new things here and there that took place in the home of mine and the gang. More so Edd’s home, but I’ve given some care to the chipped walls and dull oak floor enough to call it mine too. 

After Tord disappeared, our home burnt to a crisp as a departure gift from the old friend himself, all our group could do was find a new place, something I’d already had a way to handle after previously leaving the household myself. Seeing all their items strewn about along the ash, Matt and Edd looked as grey as the soot they stood in. They were torn, both for their belongings and their so called friend ditching them. I couldn’t really do much for the place, it wasn’t like we could rebuild every pile of ash that lay there. So I sent them over to my realtor, gave them a little cash and before I knew it, boxes full of their things found their way to the adjacent rooms beside mine. We all lived close to how we had before, going more often to reside alone and live by ourselves rather than group together, but the feelings were still mutual. Tord was gone. Matt’s and My injuries soon healed up. With time, everyone let go of the event and went on to live the way they had before. Even Edd was going back to his calm and spontaneous self again. And just like all happy endings, this one was short. 

The home of ours had been set up in a small upper-middle class area of Southern England. Rent was fine for each of us at the beginning as our ways of work hadn’t really changed. Edd had his flash videos online, I had my You Tube account and well, Matt had us mostly. Edd and I worked together much like before, videos being published on both our accounts to make up for the money. Views would go up and down, and listening to the beaming videos full of responses and reactions, we didn’t mind much of the dislikes. Life was overall the same until more and more You Tubers showed up online. More of an audience, more big channels and even less attention received. You Tube had become a broad network of videos and creativity, and all the main sources of “content” were given from only a few of all the channels out there. Once Edd gained animating competition on his account, he had to speed up production if he wanted to keep his subscribers. He’d stay up night and day, hours spent cramped in his room with his laptop and the occasional Cola, and soon he showed up less and less to hang out with Matt and I. Each night I went to Matt’s house, hoping to find Edd nearby for a midnight movie session or hour of TV together, only to be surprised by Matt and stuck to watch a movie with the Blond alone. I ended up staying in my own place to pass the time, going by the both of them only rarely. Matt was stuck to handle himself then, putting out offers online for different kinds of work. He’d go for nearby small jobs at first, like waiting tables, cleaning cars at gas stations…then obscure ones that he couldn’t really do well. He even had a small modeling job session in the short time of a week before knocking down a tray of photo ink across an entire setup and being forced to leave. Rent started to pile for us with our individual problems, and soon we had to get different jobs. 

“Come on Edd, can’t you stay for just one hour?” whined Matt in a soft pleading way as he stood outside Edd’s door in front of him. A briefcase and new suit decorated the Brunet, and there was a soft scent of ironed cotton coming off him. Even his hair, normally strewn about in a messy fashion was shorter and clean-cut. His eyes wandered, a tired gaze with obvious apprehension gleaming when he glanced at Matt. He wasn’t supposed to be confronted this morning, as it was early enough for the sun to still hide behind the hill, the silence of empty streets and sleeping neighbors beckoning him to hurry on his way. Sighing, Edd shook his head and brushed by the upset Blond, too tied up by time to go through their normal arguing shenanigans. 

“I’m sorry Matt, but you know I can’t. I have to leave to work today at my new office,” as he said that he looked down to check the old watch that lie on his wrist. He was fifteen minutes under an hour earlier than the time he had to start his temp job. It almost seemed too soon to leave, but knowing the distance of the building, it was just enough to get him there on time. He went out of his way to find a nice cheap suit the day before, got it cleaned, and fixed himself up enough to impress anyone he passed by. He would have looked prim and ready to work had the bags under his eyes not made his skin look so awfully pale and face seem more tired than an insomniac given little sleep for weeks on end. And after switching to a new office for the fourth time, the one thing he really wanted was a job that would be more than temporary, so of course he wanted to look his best. 

“Just, wait until later today, I’ll be back soon.” Smiling reluctantly, he gave Matt a pat on the head and quickly ushered his drowsy friend back into his apartment. As much as the Blond wanted to argue, to cry and wake Tom so they could tell Edd how much he hadn’t been at the house or how much he avoided them and had little time to even relax for an hour, how much he didn’t even show up to say hello anymore, he knew their situation was bad enough with him and Tom already jobless…It was useless to argue and bring more trouble than they already had. So with a whimper, he nodded, saying goodbye to Edd and going back to land face first on his pillow and try to get some sleep. 

Meanwhile I woke up hearing footsteps trail down the stairway and the vibration of my phone hitting the hard wood of my nightstand. Whoever was calling at this time must’ve not been around people much.


	2. Lovely Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Waking up to the sudden ring of noise causing empty air to be replaced with the unwanted vibration of my phone may not have really been the best start to a Wednesday afternoon. Whoever decided on calling me so early had to have been a scam caller. No one I knew would even be awake at this time.

Waking up to the sudden ring of noise causing empty air to be replaced with the unwanted vibration of my phone may not have really been the best start to a Wednesday afternoon. I’d say morning but with the way late nights have been showing up more and more on my schedule, the idea of an early start to the day would be too surprising to be true. As Edd and Matt tried their hardest to maintain jobs for the past few months and still having little progress, I spent my time around old friends and new ones found around the cluster of apartments near ours. It was the only thing I really tried to do when I wasn’t cooped up in my own apartment. I didn’t feel the energy to think, and a lot of the hangouts were moments spent just to listen. Listen to the little problems each person faced, the sites they saw, the things they’d heard of others. Rumors and lies that I hoped would take up all my thoughts, make me forget to pay attention to the past. It worked for a few weeks, just hanging out in coffee shops and in online calls. People I’d known from old jobs and the like were usually the ones I were around the most as they’d use my time to speak of their little banters and ways to waste their youth. But within a month, a lot of my old friends began to drift away as they met other people and gained new interests. A few even got engaged. And because of how much I didn’t feel like trying at the time, I was left by myself again. It took a while for me to speak to people after I was alone, me being twice as reclusive and antisocial as ever, and the only thing that really got me out of my home was the well needed fresh air and a change of settings every once in a while. I wasn’t going out to meet people, I wasn’t going out for a new start. If I had wanted to do that, the least I would do was bring Matt and Edd with me. Though one of the friends as distant as ever and the other a mess, it was easier to just go alone. It wasn’t even a surprise when the scent of alcohol, salt, and the sounds of drunken laughter illuminating a dim yellow-lit bar a couple blocks from home was the first place I started making stops at. It was cliché, sure. I was only staying there to take my mind off things to begin with, to maybe have a little drugged happiness go through me like most of the others there. A few drinks were all I needed and then I could go back home, not speaking with anyone there or back. But like most plans I made, it was predictable when this poorly done one took its turn to fail. And only three weeks into progress. On my third Saturday out, I had already taken about four shots of a new strong liquor. It wasn’t as a dare, not to impress anyone, or to show a friend, but out of pure curiosity. If it was strong enough, I would start to buy it on my own and bring it home, and maybe even bring my own glass back to the bar every weekend. So, dumbly enough I ordered three, taking each after the first would fail to set in. It was only when I went to the restroom after just having ordered two more did I start to stumble and feel lighter, my steps barely going over each other as I walked across the tiled floor. I went back to the bar quickly, leaning against the countertop to take another shot, voice trailing as I smirked down at the empty glass, and after the fourth one, I moved off the dark wooden stool holding the fifth to make my way to a booth and lean against the cushions there, knowing any more of them and I’d never leave the bar. Each foot across the dull wooden floors was like a mile in my feet. The room was crowded, people grouped together at almost every corner there, mingling and making more noise than the cheesy music that played in the background. Squished between a tall male and the wall, I decided it would be better to make my way out rather than deal with the annoyance of the lack of space or comfort. And just as I turned to leave, it wasn’t the spill of alcohol that surprised me, not the rage that shined through a stranger’s eyes as I stared at their stained shirt with half-assed apologies already forming in my head, nor the wasted money going down the drain. What surprised me was as my words stumbled with an obvious sarcasm only blurred by the few shots of alcohol that went through my system, the stranger picked up my glass, brushing it off as if dust littered the whole thing and placing it on the wooden barstool nearby. He didn’t hit me, shout, start any fight, or give a sarcastic remark of the new color of his worn shirt. He laughed, pulling me over to the bar like we were old friends in the crowded mess of people, and if I weren’t already tipsy I would’ve left him there to deal with the slip up on his own. We talked, more so him than I. And after a needed session to just let some things out, he gave me his number. A few calls a night after that and some invitations every so often soon made me familiar with him and those who stayed in a building close to his who shared common interests in drinking and guitar. And the night outs caught hold of my life like fire.

I rubbed my forehead with a low groan, arms weakly reaching to grab my phone and find out who it was that was calling me. Once my eyes got a glance at the time they widened in surprise. Seven thirty in the morning…No wonder the sun hadn’t given a slight notice from my window. The blinds were closed shut, sure, but there would always be a measly sliver of light that would wake me once day arrived. Whoever decided on calling me so early had to have been a scam caller. No one I knew would even be awake at this time, and it was a miracle I was even up to hear the call with all the fucking shots I took last night. I held my breath before my thoughts continued, ringing in my ears causing tremors of an early headache to start in my skull. The air felt thick and hot around my bed sheets, and I shivered as a growing ache in my stomach came. Maybe ‘so many shots’ was an understatement. The loss in memory should’ve been a wake-up call. With a sigh and a stretch before leaning back to feel less sick, I let my hand hold firmly to the sides of my phone and before my thumb reached the reject button, the call went to voicemail on its own. I raised a brow and stared at the blank screen, the caller and their number practically disappearing from the cell. No need to wake me up if only for that now, huh? Shaking my head lightly before dropping the phone unceremoniously on my pillow, I moved to lay on my stomach as another sickening rumble started. The contents in me, as empty as they were, shook with aggravation, and I groaned in response, just wanting to fall back asleep again. What the hell did I even do last night that got me in such a state as now? Black outs were bad, sure, but this felt a lot worse than any hangover I’d ever been through. And my upper arms felt sore enough to be dragged away from me by gravity and leave me limbless on the mattress. Growing more tired, I shivered once the room got cold, noticing the bed sheets that had been crumpled down to meet my waist. They must’ve moved when I got up to get my phone. Bending my fingers to test my movement, I let out a sound of annoyance when it caused a low ache in the front of my arms. It was difficult, but with a little effort I pulled the blankets over my head, shutting my eyes in an attempt to drift back into a calm rest. A few more hours were all I needed before dealing with this.

Sighing and breathing deeply seemed to last forever with that, but it wasn’t forever enough. I let myself float high, almost like I weren’t there, eyes glued shut with every thought of everything I’d known passing by me. Slowly, my mind eased into the blank state, welcoming that calming feeling of familiar nothingness. Colors seemed to come and go from lilac to grey to cyan behind my eyelids. Every sound I heard was distant, echoing like it was from another room. I lay flat and let the wind float me further and further from the pain, as though I were in a void state. Everything around me was black, and part of me smiled when I began to feel nothing at all. Soon my stomach didn’t even give notice to being there and the pains were nothing but a memory. With a loss of breath, I shook slightly, letting everything leave me as I floated through the air. Blinking, I looked around then, seeing myself start to fall from wherever I was inch by inch. The colors merged, light blues and greens coming around me as a warming yellow was all I could see. Once I breathed in again, everything suddenly felt so strangely familiar, as though I could have been in this void before. There were hints of mowed grass, dried paint, and the scent of old microwaved macaroni rising from an open window. Shadows decorated the world like musicians with their masterpieces, and soon every color took shape, building a plethora of homes around me on every corner, sidewalks lacing the lawns like decorative lingerie on silken clothing. Everything gained in color and understanding at that moment and I watched once I realized I was gliding over our old home from before.

Feet in the air and head barely below the clouds, a small smile played at the edges of my lips. Everything slowly started to fit together, the sights and smells, the feeling in the wind, the welcoming gesture of it all… I even raised a brow playfully upon the sight of our old neighbors, with their similar colors that seemed dull compared to Matt’s, Edd’s, and mine, as they stood outside their oaken door. And from a distance I could see lime green and violet shades that caused my chest to fill with such happy nostalgia. My two friends, the way they used to be. My two friends, running to the house as fast as they could. Relief flooded me and I turned back to the old yellow painted walls again. It was all just as I’d remembered it, that soft smell of comfort food and soda leading me right next to the roof and the warmth that came off the walls letting me float so heavenly above the doorstep. Matt and Edd stood below me with their arms to their sides, feet laying tough on the bright green lawn a few yards from the front door. Once they were there, they both turned to face the outside of the home and street near our neighbor. I smiled, glad the distance from us was shorter and with a soft movement of my feet, expected to fall to the ground and stand with them. Though as I waited, nothing changed, both of them still glancing at a street nearby, mumbling things I couldn’t quite understand. I tried my hardest to float down, legs kicking the air uselessly and arms flailing in a cartoon like way, only to stay gliding there. Shaking my head with a soft casualty as I reached to wave at them for help, their voices stopped, suddenly silent, and I tilted my head, squinting. I could barely see their faces from my distance, and only got an idea of where they were actually looking when I put a little effort, even leaning myself closer to them to get a view. Their eyes weren’t on me, not even one bit. But of course that made sense if they weren’t even facing the general direction of my body, or even the front of the house at that. I oddly wondered then if they even looked to me when they ran to the house to begin with... Keeping my focus on them as moving down was impossible, I felt a tug at the back of my mind when their eyes went up at the sky, and after a moment they went far enough to tilt their faces up to the clouds even, as if to try and make it more obvious. How strange. There didn’t seem to be anything to look at. But maybe they were just waiting for something, something I wasn’t aware of. That had to be it. Both of them spoke quietly as I thought, almost sounding surprised from the tone, and the floor almost had a feeling of moving an inch up in height. I held my breath as something told me they were facing farther up, maybe even above where I was. Blinking and looking down to them with my brows furrowed, I tried my hardest to get whatever little attention they could manage towards me. My mouth opened, words and vibrations going out clearly in an attempt to shout but it only sounded clouded, as if muzzled up with cotton and carpet. Then the floor moved up an inch again, this time with my eyes focusing enough to see it. Watching with confusion, I tilted my body, trying to swing down from the air, saying both their names as I was held up, and _still floating_. I groaned, previous confusion and distraught turning into frustration and the strings around my spirit grew wound.

In a fit of anger, I punched the air around me feeling it grow thick and heavy enough to block my hits like concrete pushing out oxygen. What in the hell was holding me here? It couldnt have been me, and nothing seemed to be around me keeping me back… Whatever was happening, it almost seemed to be deliberate, like someone wanted me here. My feet hung uselessly above my friends who still stared at the sky and the heat that came off me soon was nothing more than empty air and half-filled thoughts stirring in my head. There didn’t seem to be a reason for me to be here. Not with everything so empty from the streets to the sidewalks and so stuck as it was from the birds in the sky to the two hooded figures below me whom I expected to see with such gratitude. They almost were frozen there, like someone hit the pause button on this moment, leaving me to await attention I’d never have and leaving them to await a sudden change that would never take place. It took a few moments before my anger left and I stood there shaking and sighing. I let my head hang backwards to do the same as Edd then, view staying on a small broken cloud with air both drifting and staying in place, seeing as there was nothing else to really do. The soft clouds stuck just above my skull like cotton candy and bright blue colors melted and hung as a canvas for all the sights to decorate. Everything seemed much more different than before, the ground, the neighborhood, the house. They all looked fake, made of plastic that had been burned and molded together into one gooey big ball of artificiality. I felt a lump in my throat hitch once the air went to my lungs, suddenly smelling of rotten mud, moldy food, and sickly sweet soda. Yellow wooden walls that were once welcoming were now old and depressing to me like the yellow of unbrushed teeth, or that from a stained shirt. Green grass seeming so healthy was now bright and gleaming like ten football stadium lights shining from the floor. I groaned as the feeling in my stomach came back, my waist twisting in an effort to push it away, only making it worse. I bent forwards, eyes widening on the cracked pavement before my backside was suddenly slammed into the roof behind me by an unknown force. Shock filled the broken parts of my spine and I stared as I was forced away from my friends. Feeling my breath escape me in an instant, I screwed my eyes shut, pain shooting up my spine like jolts of energy across a telephone line. I bent my fingers towards me, scraping my hands along the broken roof tiles as though it would lift me off and bring me back to the aching comfort of the unforgiving sky. Edd’s and Matt’s voices rang out with panic, the ground shaking below them as if to illustrate a beckoning from away from the house. Every vibration to my ears were clouded, every one of them sounding as muffled and far away as my own. I could only feel the ground shake through the sandpaper-like roof tile my back lay on, stinging and deep red with blood at every movement. Oddly, Matt and Edd almost sounded closer now, like they were on the roof with me, even as I saw them so far away. Shouts seemed to fade in and out, and as I tried to reach for them, the back of my head dragged to hit the roof in seconds in response. Eyes squeezing like clamps, my hands shook as different shades of red came out the back of my skull and trickled down my cut spine. Slowly, everything was fading, turning from bright red to black. All of my weight was pulling me down, and soon both voices I heard began to float away from me. There was a cry, quiet and pleading, that mixed with a high pitched note filling up my skull. A hand reached to touch my face and I leaned into it, and I sighed. What greeted my eyes was the blurred mess of red that towered above the house, brighter than the red that surrounded my bones. It looked as though someone grabbed a scarlet crayon leaving a waxy line from the doughy grass to the paper sky. Wires stuck from the giant faded shape, standing tall like seven firetrucks mashed together, and I shivered, the low dull of memory passing through my skull as it mixed with my blood. The ground moved up inch by inch, red standing tall above me then, and it pushed each bent and broken tile far into my open back, voices growing closer and more clouded with every second. It all set in before I knew it then, the old red stain of ‘friendship’ and the burning sensation of fire coming back into my system with its _warm_ and knowing welcome I’d hoped to forget from seemingly so long ago. Things started to swirl together, images and colors lumping into a misshapen mess of red as hot fire laced my sight before all I had was dragged down. As hands seemed to wrap around my skull and crush against me, it was only moments before I lost all control in what I felt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update wont be for a while after this chapter.


	3. A Different Setting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tom escapes his dream. To a more comfortable zone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy July 1st and god has my writing style changed in the past year.

When I wake up in darkness, the shadows about me aren’t the first things to grab my attention. The room, empty and echoing holds a much stronger outlook, walls encompassing every edge of my skin, hiding every color.

I can’t see.

I blink, feel for shape, for some solidity around me. But as I grab and reach through air, there doesn't seem to be much of anything, the hope of sounds alone dissipating when I find nothing there. Almost like a vacuum. And, although eyesight doesn't seem to help me at all, I move, squinting and gazing at the dark relentless, watching and waiting as the thick clouds of emptiness take forms, almost like a dream. The shapes around me don’t have color, there isn’t even much of a smell. No alcohol spills. No trace of anything resembling _me_. But...after a while…I find sound. 

My hearing, initially, was clouded when I first awoke. Yet with the minutes, it slowly became clear, once focus started to settle in. And from the gentle graced whisper of a blink of an eye to the deeper, short, sudden etch of a light gasp, I noticed the waves that now echoed around. I even hissed softly, as the sound, not stable enough for me, as it soon boosted much to my attention. A dull pain, ringing that kickstarted in my right ear, began to grow. Of course, it was always more fun when my body decided to remind me ahead of time of my blatant level of health, rather than ease me through it. But regardless, with the lovely schedule of tinnitus burrowing its way through me, I kept at my goal, needing to know exactly where I was. I listened. Painfully, at first, till it became more of a light sore workout. Soon, some piece of the room caught my ear. A soft whirring of something...something...mechanic. And a click as it's settings changed. I bit my tongue, breathing in the soft smell of smoke as it moved. But it sounded close, close enough to emit light if it could, as much as the sound. Maybe it could show me where I am. 

Reaching to my right on instinct then, I try to search for it, to find a switch or anything glued to the wall. I never was the kind to wait for long, after all, the sound really being all I’d need for a golden sign.  And before I can pull back, there's a tightness wrapped around my wrist, keeping me from even touching my arm. The wrap against my skin was tough, not scratched or scraping like rope, yet, the firmness in it held calm, not frigidly like metallic handcuffs. And besides that, I’d been held by the cops before. The cold metal would’ve been a real wake up call to start. So then, the question now seemed to be, why was I held back?  And by a restraint even more so? Twisting my legs a bit to move against the bed, in a half witted struggle, I soon realize grips holding them down by my ankles as well..Some fuckin pattern. And I sighed with a low frustration as I bent my fingers into my shirt..I was tied up. The fact became clearer and clearer. Or rather, tied down against this...Almost metallic and flat surface I was forced to lay on like a patient in a mental hospital…

Hospital...wait a minute...Bending a bit forwards, against the tug of restraint, I leaned the side of my head, a twist of thought coming into my mind. 

_ Just where the fuck was I? _


End file.
